JVG is not kidding around. He really wants the league to do away with fouling out.

Speaking to FanHouse’s Brett Pollakoff, Jeff Van Gundy let fly, saying that people deserved to see the best Cetlics players and the best Lakers players without fear of foul truble. He’s advocating at least an increase in the max number of fouls, if not a move away from fouling out in general. JVG has been beating this drum on ABC broadcasts for a while.

It certainly speaks to a lot of people’s concerns about the toughness of the league these days and the frustrating way officiating can control a game. But at the same time, you have to wonder if you can ever make people happy. After all, in the late 90’s when JVG’s coaching was in its heyday, people complained about the brutal, rough nature of the game. Moving back towards that in comparison to the free flowing style of modern day would probably hurt the product.

It would dramatically shift the kinds of players that are valued as well. Glen Davis’ contract would soar, while Amar’e Stoudemire’s would likely drop a touch. It’s a radical idea with radical consequences. It’s hard to see the league opting in to such an arrangement.

That’s a fine sentiment. Saying it publicly is another matter. Not even Harden did that a couple years ago. He was recorded during a pregame team huddle.

There’s a fine line between self-fulfilling confidence and providing bulletin-board material to the opponent. There’s already some animosity between the teams stemming from the Stephen Curry-Harden MVP race in 2015, and it has bubbled since. No matter how harmless Capela’s remark might have been intended to be, it’ll be met contentiously in the Bay Area.

Oklahoma City traded for Victor Oladipo out of Orlando to be their third scorer, behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. It didn’t exactly work out that way, Durant bolted town and when Westbrook went off Oladipo was looking for a place to fit in.

That place turned out to be the Pacers.

Oladipo has been playing like an All-Star this season with Indiana, and last week he was key in snapping Cleveland’s 13 game win streak, then turned around and dropped 47 points on Denver. For the week he averaged 35.7 points a game, shot 45.7 percent from three, plus grabbed 7.7 rebounds per game.